Ha! I love the way you make us sound like some kind of bad-news gang. I’ll have a hard time getting rid of theater folk, considering that I spend, on average, more time in the theater than I do eating, sleeping, and studying for my non-theater classes combined. That’s all right, though – I like people who know what I’m talking about, and I like to think I’m level-headed enough to balance out any medium-to-low drama queens and pitch anyone higher than that out on their ears.
But news from the front!
Tonight I went to the movies with a group of friends (including Young Gentleman #2, who was quite attentive), and got home to find out that Gentleman #1 had called twice and left messages along the lines of “Hey, how are you, just checking in, how’s life treating you?”
I called him all ready to bristle at him for calling late on a Sunday after a month of intermittence-at-best, but then I figured, hey! Life’s too short to be mad at handsome post-breakup literate guys. So we spent two hours talking about what one talks about when one’s on the phone for two hours after midnight: did-you-hear-they’re-making-a-new-Indiana-Jones, how’s-your-library-job-going, what-do-you-think-Da-Vinci-Code-would-have-been-like-if-Tom-Robbins-wrote-it, and related.
“So,” he said, a little coyly, “how’s your love life?”
“Oh, intermittent,” I said. “A few prospects, you know how it is.”
“Really?” he said. “Do tell.”
“Well, this one,” I said, “I had a great weekend with him about a month ago, but since then I haven’t seen much of him at all. He keeps saying he’ll call and then doesn’t, which is a little off-putting.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve just-- I’ve been so busy. Crazy busy. Two weeks of sixteen-hour days busy.”
“Please,” I said.
“Well-- oh, well,” he said. “But this guy, right! What’s he like?”
“Oh, tall, darkly handsome, a scenic designer who works at the local regional theater,” I said, dropping my voice.
“I’m really the only one?” he said. “Woo-hoo!”
“Not at all!” I said. “There’s another kid who I think is quite interested in me. He bought my movie ticket tonight!” [<— this was of course a transparent ploy to make him jealous, but really, if he’s going to take the “you never caaaa-aaaaall!” without a more sincere apology, you get what’s coming.]
“Damn,” he said. “I’m going to have to kill him.”
A little later, the subject of Former Live-In Long-Term Relationship Girlfriend came up.
“And how’s that going?” I asked.
“Some days-- some days,” he said, “you just have to, you know, lock yourself in the house with a pizza and some beer so you don’t go out and punch pedestrians at random, and some days you don’t-- I don’t feel like it’s fair to you to be unloading it on you.”
“Well, I’ll listen if you’d like to,” I said.
“Nah, I’m okay,” he said. “So how’s the newspaper going?” Switching subjects quickly, I took the cue and went on about my co-editors. Former Live-In Long-Term Relationship Girl didn’t come up again.
So, it seems to me like he’s interested, I don’t know whether or not to trust him on the “I’m busy” card (although it is a busy time of year at the theaters, with the summer shows opening in a few weeks), and the ex-girlfriend is clearly still giving him problems.
I can’t decide if he’s genuinely conflicted about the ex and/or genuinely busy at work (surely he could call, even if just on a break?), or if he’s just stringing me along a bit to have someone to spend time with. Does the SDMB Male Psyche Contigent have any perspective to offer?
(also, thanks for being my, what, LiveJournal substitute? The best dating advice I’ve ever gotten has been off the SDMB, from other people’s threads as well as my own, and I really appreciate all the voices of experience who are willing to chime in to help a young kid out. :))
Which food is a different part of the equation.
Featherlou, get out of my head. That’s exactly what I was going to say.
)